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Eschatology

The Coming of the Kingdom

Published: 11 January 2013
Written by Dean Davis
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Categories: Eschatology, Theology

The  essay linked to this post is extracted from my forthcoming book, The High King of Heaven: Discovering the Master Keys to the Great End Time Debate. As the title indicates, my theme in the essay is the coming of the Kingdom of God: the way it enters history, and the the stages in which it enters, until the universe, life, and man reach their final destination in the World to Come.

I regard this as the single most helpful chapter in the book. I believe it shows fairly conclusively that the Kingdom enters the world in two simple stages. The first I call The Kingdom of the Son. The second I call The Kingdom of the Father (or the World to Come). The two are separated by a single Consummation at the Parousia, or Second Coming, of Christ. Thus, the essay is an effort to show that the Amillennial eschatology of the ancient Catholic Church and the classic Protestant Reformation is indeed the true teaching of the Bible.

Though the essay is fairly long, I hope you will persevere in reading it. Unless I miss my guess, it could revolutionize many a biblical worldview! In any case, I do hope you are challenged and blessed by what you read.

Comments and criticisms are most welcome.

To read the essay, please click HERE.

The Day of the LORD Will Come: Understanding 2 Peter 3:3-13

Published: 29 October 2012
Written by Dean Davis
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Categories: Eschatology, Theology

For sheer power and majesty, 2 Peter 3:3-13 stands among the top two or three eschatological texts of the NT. Here the apostle fully unveils his conception of “the end of all things” (1 Peter 4:7). As ever, the Parousia lies at its heart (3:4). Now, however, the accent falls upon the one Judgment that Christ will effect at his return, and also upon the cosmic implications of that Judgment. The result is one of Scripture’s most comprehensive pictures of the Consummation, a picture whose character and unity completely rule out every premillennial scheme. For this reason, it serves as a true bulwark of the classic Reformation eschatology.

A few words of introduction are in order.

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The End of All Things is at Hand: Understanding 1 Peter 4:7-19

Published: 17 October 2012
Written by Dean Davis
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Categories: Eschatology, Theology

NOTE: This post is an excerpt from a forthcoming book entitled The High King of Heaven. Its purpose is to explain and defend the classic Reformation vision of the Church’s Blessed Hope: Christ will return once at the end of the age to raise the dead, judge the world in righteousness, and bring in the Kingdom in its full and final form.

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Our final two texts appear in the general epistles of the apostle Peter. It is widely believed that he wrote them from Rome sometime between AD 60-68, during the reign of the infamous persecutor of the fledgling Church, the Roman emperor Nero. As we shall see, in his first letter Peter repeatedly encourages suffering believers with the hope of eternal glory at the revelation of Christ. From this it is evident that when he wrote it he looked for the Lord’s return in his own lifetime. However, in his second letter, Peter has realized that he will soon be martyred (2 Peter 1:12-14, John 21:18), and that the Lord may yet tarry for a great while (2 Peter 3:8-9). Accordingly, he is now at pains to leave behind a body of written instruction and exhortation; instruction that will include, not least of all, important information about the Consummation, so that Christ’s pilgrim Church may be able to keep her Blessed Hope squarely before her eyes, and so walk in strength and purity, pleasing to the Lord (2 Peter 1:15, 3:1-18).

In this section I want briefly to discuss 1 Peter 4:7-19, a passage that well reflects the apostle’s view of the Consummation. However, in order to understand it most fully, we must take a few moments to survey the eschatology of the letter as a whole.

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When Shall These Things Be? Understanding the Olivet Discourse (Mt. 24-25)

Published: 6 October 2012
Written by Dean Davis
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Categories: Eschatology, Theology

Shortly before his passion, the Lord Jesus sat with his disciples on the Mount of Olives and taught them about the Consummation. All agree that his lengthy discourse, recounted by three of the four Gospel writers, is the single most important dominical teaching on this subject.

It is also the most difficult and controversial. However, if our grasp of biblical eschatology is firm, and our understanding of prophetic diction clear, the difficulties are actually quite surmountable, and the controversies fairly easily laid to rest.

My approach in this essay will be as follows.

First, we will look closely at the Disciple’s Question, a question that both elicited the Lord’s reply and determined the prophetic principles by which he would give it.

Secondly, we will briefly survey the Discourse itself, using those principles to help us interpret his meaning.

Thirdly, we will address some of the more difficult questions involved, even as we interact with different interpretations of controversial passages.

And finally, we will summarize our findings, showing how richly they favor the amillennial view of the Consummation.

To read the rest of this essay, please click here.

It Will Not Come Unless: Interpreting 2 Thessalonians 2

Published: 1 October 2012
Written by Dean Davis
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Categories: Eschatology, Theology

For all its doctrinal richness, this lengthy eschatological text was written primarily out of deep pastoral concern. As verses 1-2 make plain, a rumor was circulating among the Thessalonian house churches, to the effect that the Day of the Lord had come; that it was imminent. Since the rumor was troubling the brethren, distracting them from their spiritual mission and daily responsibilities, Paul addressed it pointedly. His message is clear: The Day of the Lord will not come until certain things happen first; until certain unmistakable signs appear on the historical horizon. So then: Until you see those signs, stand firm (2:15) and stay busy (2:17, 3:6f)!

Because, in the providence of God, this passage tells us so much about events leading up to the Consummation, it invites a closer look. Once again, my approach will be to give the gist of each section, spotlighting along the way the many indications that Paul here presupposes and teaches a single Consummation at the Parousia of Christ.

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